J A L A N D H A R    E D I T I O N

ATMs churning out fake notes?
Amritsar, January 24
Hold your breath. Next time you use the automatic teller machine (ATM) to withdraw your money you might feel cheated as you are likely to lay your hands on some fake currency notes of the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in the withdrawn lot of notes.

Dowry: Newlywed set afire, 4 booked
Amritsar, January 24
The Jandiala police has booked four members of a family for allegedly setting their daughter-in-law on fire for want of dowry. Seema (20), who was married to Pargat Singh, a resident of Nawa Pind about nine months back, was rushed to a private hospital by the neighbours.

Thick fog claims life
Phagwara, January 24
The minimum visibility caused by a thick fog took the life of a car owner while two others were injured in a road mishap here. Chandigarh resident Amandeep Singh (25) and two others, Amanveer and Anu, sustained critical injuries when the Maruti Zen car in which they were coming from Chandigarh dashed against the divider of the highway on Mehli-Phagwara bypass last night.

Sutlej Tragedy
Authorities unconcerned, families pay divers to locate bodies
Phagwara, January 24
The bodies of two Phagwara boys, who drowned in the Sutlej while immersing the idols of Goddess Saraswati, could not be traced even after four days of the incident. It was after noisy protests by the families of the boys, the Ladhuwal police arranged divers on Friday, 24 hours after the mishap, but surprisingly, the families of the boys said they had offered Rs 15,000 to the divers for locating the bodies.

ATMs churning out fake notes?
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 24
Hold your breath. Next time you use the automatic teller machine (ATM) to withdraw your money you might feel cheated as you are likely to lay your hands on some fake currency notes of the denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in the withdrawn lot of notes.

And once the currency notes are withdrawn there is hardly any remedy as even your bank may not accept such notes and bank officials may express their inability to change these “fake” notes.

This is what was happening with a number of ATM card holders of different banks across the state, resulting in great inconvenience. The problem turns acute for card holders getting fake currency at ATMs that they were almost left without any remedy as there was hardly anyone in or around the ATM cabins where they could lodge their complaints in the case of dispensation of fake notes by the ATMs.

“I was stunned to come across the shocking fact when I got three Rs 500 notes in my withdrawal of just Rs 5,000, which means that around 35 per cent of currency notes were fake. The cash was withdrawn on January 14 from the Cool Road-based ATM of the State Bank of Patiala. When I went to the State Bank of India branch the next day, they changed two of the notes and refused to change the third one saying it was ‘too fake’. I don’t know where to dump this fake note,” rued a Jalandhar-based housewife. Rajan, a local resident, said he had withdrawn some cash from Queen’s Road-based ATM of a bank and was surprised to find a fake Rs 500 note. “I had to rush to the bank where the staff changed the note though after initial reluctance. Who has the time to waste on such an exercise?” he questioned.

When contacted, Ashwani Gupta, Director of the State Bank of Patiala, said he would look into such complaints. “People getting such notes should lodge written complaints with the bank concerned citing their transaction details.”

Narrating his experience in respect of ATMs and other cards which, however, were becoming popular mode of money transaction, Ashwani Kohli, vice-president of the Punjab Chamber of Small Industries, said such credit and debit card frauds had made him averse of these modes. “Now I believe only in old and reliable practice like withdrawing money by a cheque. In crowded places and particularly in smaller towns hardly anyone manned ATMs and there was every possibility of theft of your password or pin number, particularly when more than one person entered the ATM cabin. It is a common thing nowadays,” said Kohli.

Dowry: Newlywed set afire, 4 booked
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 24
The Jandiala police has booked four members of a family for allegedly setting their daughter-in-law on fire for want of dowry. Seema (20), who was married to Pargat Singh, a resident of Nawa Pind about nine months back, was rushed to a private hospital by the neighbours.

Her condition is stated to be critical with more than 80 per cent burn injuries.

The incident took place yesterday when she was cooking food. The in-laws, according to complaint lodged with the police, poured kerosene on her and set her on fire.

While shouting for help, she rushed out of the house where the neighbours first doused the fire and admitted her to the hospital. It was learnt that her husband Pargat Singh was a labourer in Mumbai.

No arrest has been made so far while a case under section 498-A, 307, 120-B IPC has been registered against Nindro (mother-in-law), Goga (sister-in-law), Joginder Kaur (sister of Nindro) and Fauji, maternal uncle of her husband.

The victim, in her statement to police, alleged that just after couple of days of marriage, the in-laws started harassing and beating her for more dowry.

Arun Sharma, SHO Jandiala police station, said the accused were absconding.

Thick fog claims life
Our Correspondent

Phagwara, January 24
The minimum visibility caused by a thick fog took the life of a car owner while two others were injured in a road mishap here. Chandigarh resident Amandeep Singh (25) and two others, Amanveer and Anu, sustained critical injuries when the Maruti Zen car in which they were coming from Chandigarh dashed against the divider of the highway on Mehli-Phagwara bypass last night.

All three were admitted in the Civil Hospital where Amandeep succumbed to his injuries. Senior Medical Officer Dr Rajiv Gupta said the critically injured were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh, and the body of Amandeep was handed over to the family after a post-mortem examination at the Civil Hospital.

Poor visibility, caused by thick fog, was said to be the cause of the mishap.

Meanwhile, Phagwara and its surrounding areas experienced heavy fog which enveloped the areas from 7 pm on Saturday, severally hampering the visibility. The foggy weather continued till Sunday afternoon.

Road and rail traffic remained affected badly as several mail and express trains were running one to 13 hours behind schedule.

Sutlej Tragedy
Authorities unconcerned, families pay divers to locate bodies
Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, January 24
The bodies of two Phagwara boys, who drowned in the Sutlej while immersing the idols of Goddess Saraswati, could not be traced even after four days of the incident. It was after noisy protests by the families of the boys, the Ladhuwal police arranged divers on Friday, 24 hours after the mishap, but surprisingly, the families of the boys said they had offered Rs 15,000 to the divers for locating the bodies.

Now the families have been asked by the Ludhiana and Phillaur Civil Administrations and Police to wait for few more days saying that the bodies would naturally start floating on the top.

Earlier, delay in search operation was caused by a jurisdiction dispute between Phillaur and Ladhuwal officials. Phillaur SDM Pritam Singh claimed that mishap site was very much in the jurisdiction of Sadar Ludhiana according to revenue records.

The careless civil administrations and police did not bother to launch neither rescue operation to save the boys nor search operation to locate the bodies of drowned youths, saying they had not any such adequate arrangements of divers to locate the bodies.